Competing with such leccy micro-cars like Peugeot’s BB1 and Renault's Twizy in the 'would you actually buy anything that looks like that?' stakes is Toyota's latest thinking on future e-cars for the city, the FT-EV II.
The EV II is an evolution of the EV I that Toyota showed at the Detroit Motor Show earlier this year rather …

COMMENTS

Useless...

Well, maybe not if you're in a retirement community or on controlled-access roads like on an island.

But what good is a car that tops out at less than highway speeds, has very limited range, and is butt-ugly to boot? Maybe for a short commute to work, maybe not. And the thought of being next to a big rig or in any kind of crash in this thing makes me shudder. Or on a bridge on a windy day. No thanks. I'll keep my fuel-guzzling beast a little longer.

Ugliness

I do not understand why car manufacturers are so hell-bent on making all these leccy cars look as unappealing as possible? Okay, there's the Wrightspeed X1 and the Tesla Roadster, but they're not exactly family 5-door.

I say it is all a conspiracy funded by the fossil fuel industry! Make the cars ugly, hurt uptake, keep us at the pumps for as long as possible.

US Launch

"Toyota has promised that it will launch a leccy city car in the US sometime in 2012."

Certainly not this one. With a top speed of 62 mph., it'd be quickly run over as soon as it enters an expressway. Any expressway. Even Smart drivers do around 75-80 mph. on these roads just to avoid the sight of a Freightliner in their rear view mirror.

Seriously

If they were serious about this they would allow full electric cars to drive in the bus lanes that the local authorities have been so busy building lately. Strange really as they used to build bus lanes in the 80's, then they all but disappeared, now they're back again !